“I’ve still got two to go, and obviously one is already past, so I don’t know. The Hall of Fame was probably not one of my biggest goals. I think when I got close to that, yes, that was on my mind. I always thought the career grand slam was something that I really wanted to do.
“Now thinking about it, it’s very hard. It’s hard enough winning five majors, to win all different ones is pretty difficult, I would say. And to be at your peak at the majors every time it comes around in the span of four-ish months, it’s hard. Nelly winning the first two is almost unheard of in ways.
“People are like you can’t retire until you do that. I’m like, I don’t know if it’s going to happen. If they told me [that] if I played the next five years and I would do it, then, yeah, maybe I would.
“There are no guarantees, and I might as well just enjoy it while I do get to play these amazing championships.”
Ko’s first shot at a career grand slam was at last year’s US Open, when she finished tied for 26th. At last year’s Women’s PGA Championship, she was tied for 12th, nine shots behind winner Minjee Lee, while she missed the cut at the US Open earlier this month.
The 29-year-old says she still gets nervous at the start of an event, which is a sign she’s still ready to play on, despite talk of her retirement coming sooner rather than later.
“Every round can be a learning opportunity for the tournaments coming up, so I think in that way my mindset has changed. But I still get nervous on the first hole and the last hole. You know, I missed the cut by one at both The Chevron Championship and the US Women’s Open.
“Honestly, it sucks. I think there is no denying that. It doesn’t matter how many times you play those championships. I know that there is less ahead of me than how many I played before.
“So, yeah, I still want to play well. I don’t think there is a secret on how I keep motivating myself. I do know that probably the time when I don’t feel a lot of these emotions is probably when I should step away because I’m prioritising other things. And that’s not a bad thing, right? There are so many different cycles of life.
“I think I’m still super excited for this week. Obviously, this is one that I’ve never won before. Juli Inkster was like, are you going to be at the dinner? I was like, I haven’t won this event. So maybe I could join her and Danielle [Kang] and some of the other players at the table someday.”
Ko tees off at 1.06am tomorrow (NZT) alongside Canadian Brooke M. Henderson and English rookie Lottie Woad.